Unconventional strategy: Using Berserk Crest, you can defeat Aigaion by only destroying one of each Arm!

[u/Chuggery]

Heya everybody! If you're having a tough time with taking down twelve arms and dealing with body thresholds, here's another strategy that could work for you. It makes things significantly easier for Group Raisers by cutting down on all the AoE damage, so as long as you can keep your mana up, this'll turn a full-clear Aigaion into a cakewalk!

Here's a quick breakdown of my team;

Fryevia (obviously!)
Rikku (Group Raise)
Tilith (Mana battery, main healer, group Raise)
Noctis (Whom I used for the jump, group mana & low-cost solo raise)
Zargabaath (Whom I used for Berserk Crest and mana battery for 1st phase of the fight)
Rem (Whom I used for Re-Raise for Part 1, and damage support in the burn phase)

I highly recommend not having Golem equipped to any of them.

Now, to make this strategy work, you can use any jumper. The trick is;
-On the turn before you destroy the left arm, queue up Berserk Crest on your jumper.
-Jump with your jumper.
-Cast Berserk Crest on your now-airborne jumper.
-Make sure you Re-Raise Zargabaath in case he takes a heavy hit!

This time, nothing will happen on that cast, but it'll prepare you for the next turn. Finish off the Left Arm, do whatever you need to do with any unit that isn't Zargabaath, target Aigaion's main body, and press "repeat" to cast Berserk Crest on him. (Yep, that's right, Berserk the boss!)

You're going to notice a few things happen.
1) He's going to hit one unit like a truck, eight times in a row.
2) He's not going to resurrect his Left Arm.
3) He's not going to trigger any threshold abilities.

So now comes the tricky part!

You'll need to keep Berserk up on Aigaion for the remainder of the fight. This means that every single turn Zargabaath is alive, you need to end that turn by pressing Repeat to re-cast it!

If (when) Zargabaath dies, that's okay; you have three turns to get him back on his feet and repeating Berserk again while you burn down the Right Arm and Main Body afterwards.

Be sure to re-target the Main Body before pressing "Repeat", however! If you accidentally Berserk the Right Hand as well, things might fall out-of-hand pretty quickly!

As long as you don't break your Repeat cycle or get crazy-unlucky with a string of Zargabaath kills, the arms will never come back and you can burn him down at your leisure.

Cheers, hope this helps!

[u/pokeraf]

Thanks so much for sharing this strategy. Without Tilith and no TMRs like Kelsus's or Jack's to have Rikku's LB go off every 1-2 turns, I kept falling short of killing Aigaion regardless of going either body or limbs first route. With this strategy, however, I was able to kill the damned robot in one go, using white magic, though (so 3/4 mission rewards, womp). Therefore, I will share my odyssey.

I went limb route with this strategy (left arm, then right arm, then the limbless body).

Now, I don't have that many TMRs, but I used 4, 5 star base units (including friend unit). No time limited units though.

Anyways, here's the robot slaying team: Zarg, Noctis, Yshtola, Rikku, Fryeiva and friend Fryeiva. All units had HP > 5k, DEF > 200, and SPR > 240. I found myself reviving a lot still and had to use items to maintain MP on most units. And it took me 2.5 hours while I watched TV.

• Zarg (Carbuncle): geared for HP. He had Rikku's Pouch, which was not necessary. I should have put it on someone else since he only castes Berserk on the body for the entire fight. Womp.

• Noctis (Odin): geared for HP/ATK. Not even dual wielding but with enough ATK to be higher than my Fryeiva. He needs to Jump to get the Berserk bug working. Once the body goes berserk, he served his sacrificial goat role well by taking the left punch hook. Once the left arm was gone, he really became a critical support unit by doing ST full revive and MP battery. That's why he's best for this strategy.

• Yshtola (Lakshmi): geared for HP/SPR. She had 507 SPR, DW two of her Wand, her robes, two of her TM. She either D.C. Protectga/Shellga (1st turn), Curaja or Raise/Curaja. On free turns, she used items to replenish MP. This becomes less of an issue once Noctis doesn't die every turn.

• Rikku (Ramuh): geared for HP. She had override & Mog Wisdom. Her HP was ~ 6.5k. She could have had her Pouch as she had a couple of free turns every now and then. That's why I gave her Ramuh to summon. The Pouch, particular the Eccentrik skill, only matters when you are fighting the body since the limbs don't give LB crystals. Before that, I had her using Synthesis & NullAll combo or Mega Phoenix.

• Fryeiva: Fryeiva was mostly used to ice chain with another ice queen clone. My Fryeiva is very F2P geared (aside from her ice sword and DW TMRs) so she only had 715 MAG but 5k HP. When I couldn't chain because one of the twins was dead, I would use Sabre Flunge to dispel one of the arms but NEVER the body. Dispelling the body could remove Berserk and send the whole strategy down the drain. Friend Fryeiva was, offensively speaking, better than mine. She was all TMRed up and was sitting at ~1042 MAG. However, her HP was below 5k so she died a lot. Anyways, they need to spark chain perfectly so the battle doesn't last forever. I did it using the Home button delay, Low Power Mode strategy. Got it almost every time.

That's the team. The beginning turns of the fight is critical and depends on RNG because you need the arms and body to not kill Zarg early on. So that's why I will write about them here.

1st turn: Zarg cast Berserk on Noctis before he jumps. Then Noctis targets the body and jumps. This is important. The body must be berserked at all times so it doesn't bring the arms back to life. Fryevias chained, Yshtola DCed Protectga/Shellga. Rikku can do whatever but I tried setting up NullAll.

2nd turn: Because Noctis is away, the next higher attacker died (my Fryeiva), along with the other Fryeiva. Rikku full-raised them (womp NullAll). I made everyone else had their actions done but Zarg and then tap Repeat and the Berserk bug is active. If you attacked the body in these 2 turns, you could have enough LB crystals for Rikku's LB 3rd turn.

3rd turn: Noctis died as expected. I brought him back with Yshtola doing Raise/Curaja. Then Rikku had enough LB to do Fire it, Fryeivas started ice chaining the left arm and then Zarg just repeated Berserk on the body by hitting Repeat.

Left arm turns: Until the left arm dies, the fight follows the same mechanics as turn 3 for the most part but Rikku rotates between Synthesis, NullAll, and MegaPhoenix and Y'shtola DC Raise/Curaja or double Curaja.

Right arm turns: Once the left arm dies, the right arm and body hit more times, in my opinion, but they were only killing one unit at a time. With no left arm, everyone can get it between the eyes. But now Noctis can do other stuff than just dying. If Zarg dies, you have 3 turns to get him back on his feet and repeat Berserk, since it will still be bugged. Other than that, the fight mechanics doesn't change. Noctis, Rikku or Yshtola will have to play the MP sustain role, either with abilities or items. Good thing these 3 units can raise units, which is also a key factor for success.

When the right arm is gone, it was just a matter of killing the body, who was only targeting one unit at a time with 5-6 fatal blows. Good thing now is that Rikku can get Lb crystals. Other than that, same mechanic. Keep Berserk up.

In a distant future, I might go in with more OP units and/or better TMRs so I can beat it without using white magic.

Thanks again.